Why Are These Obamacare Ads Using Absurd Gender Stereotypes?

Girl with black hair sitting in front of the laptop, while a blond girl is standing next to her
Impact

There's an advertising campaign circulating in Colorado that aims to get women signed up for Obamacare. But, it's as if the ad campaign was just dreamed up by a bunch of guys in the c-suite. The print ads, which mimic the famous "Got milk?" posters, lean on weak stereotypes about women.

The ads were funded by ProgressNow Colorado, Thanks, Obamacare!, and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, the latter of which — despite working with two progressive groups to put on a pro-Obamacare campaign — claims to be "non-partisan."

Below, some of the ads re-captioned for accuracy about the campaign's message.

1. Thanks, Obama

"You know what's fabulous? Working a minimum wage job and eating Ramen noodles every night! YAAAAY, feminism!"

"My employer cut my hours due to Obamacare's insurance requirement. Now I can't work as much as I'd like, and my employer would like. Thanks, Obama!"

"Health is so important to me that I signed up for Obamacare ... Right after I downed another $1 chemical loaf."

2. Lady Sports, Exhibit A

"We are incapable of basic physical activity! LOL! Ladiez, let's go eat some low-cal yogurt and talk about how awesome Jennifer Lawrence is, and how not awesome it is to get dropped by your insurance plan!"

3. Lady Sports, Exhibit B

This ad could have featured a tennis player, a soccer player, a volleyball player, or a basketball team. Maybe even a golfer or a gymnast. But instead, here's our second installment of Lady Sports, now with neon make-up and tights!

"I'm so glad I can get painkillers with my health insurance. And everyone knows that Ladiez need painkillers for Roller Derby injuries, and not for pulled muscles or headaches or colds! Those are Real People problems. Ladiez don't have those."

4. Is This an Asylum?

"GIRLS NIGHT! Time to go drink in an empty room with plain white walls and no windows. Yolo!"

"In the emergency room with alcohol poisoning? Good thing I have insurance!"

5. Hey, Girl

Please, crazed insurance people, step away from The Gosling. Is this what you do when you can't get a real celebrity endorsement? You steal the cardboard cutout?

6. "Hey, I Just Met you, and This is Crazy..."

"All I have to worry about is getting him between the covers. I definitely don't need to worry about this being the right decision for me, or if this guy respects me, or if we even know each others' names. I make my reproductive choices solely based on the cost of contraception."